Ontario’s lack of readiness for nuclear emergencies is a frightening situation that should alarm every resident, especially those in Southwestern Ontario, says Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley.

“The province preaches to municipalities about emergency plans. It turns out the preacher isn’t following his own gospel,” Bradley said Thursday.

Bradley joined a chorus of critics slamming the Liberal government a day after Ontario’s auditor general revealed shortcomings in provincial emergency and nuclear response plans, concluding it’s not ready for a large-scale emergency.

Southwestern Ontario is home to the world’s largest operating nuclear plant, the Bruce nuclear complex near Kincardine.

Neither Ontario’s emergency preparedness nor its nuclear response plans has been updated in almost a decade and budget cuts have trimmed staff and programs at its emergency management office, Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk, the province’s spending watchdog, reported.

And there aren’t enough people trained to staff Ontario’s emergency centre for a crisis longer than two weeks, a cabinet committee overseeing emergency management hasn’t met in years and few ministry-level practice tests in the last five years involved simulations.

The weakness in Ontario’s emergency planning and oversight make the province “vulnerable if a large-scale emergency were to occur,” the report said.

“It is essential in a province the size of Ontario that the government be ready to act in the event of an emergency,” Lysyk said in a statement.

Ontario has the highest nuclear power generating capacity of any province or state in North America, and the province is responsible for the response to any nuclear emergency affecting areas outside a plant, Lysyk noted.

For Southwestern Ontarians, it’s worth noting no working nuclear plant in the world is larger than the giant, eight-reactor Bruce Power complex in Tiverton, which is provincially-owned but privately operated.

Community safety critics for both opposition parties jumped on the auditor general’s findings.

The province has to make emergency response a priority and act immediately on the report’s recommendations, she said.

That action has to include beefing up resources for emergency responders in municipalities, especially those close to Canadian and U.S. nuclear plants, said NDP community safety critic, Taras Natyshak.

“They aren’t given the resources to properly mitigate disasters,” the Essex MPP said.

“Without any action, the responses are only lip service to communities and emergency service personnel that ware working to ensure safety. Every second that goes by is a second communities are vulnerable.”

Residents in Amherstberg can see across Lake Erie the towers of the Enrico Fermi nuclear plant in Michigan, and emergency responders in Ontario need the resources to handle any crisis there, Natyshak said.

The province doesn’t provide the proper funding for municipalities to meet what the province legislates they do to prepare for emergencies, London Mayor Matt Brown said.

“It’s very limited funding. For us to meet the current expectations, there’s a need for additional funding.”

The auditor general’s report and a recent provincial review of the issue, released last week, both highlight areas that need to be addressed, Brown said.

It’s ironic that the auditor report was released the same day Sarnia’s emergency response group, including someone from the U.S. Homeland Security department, were working on a simulated crisis involving drinking water, Bradley said.

“I think Homeland Security would be appalled at the level of preparedness in Ontario,” Bradley said. “This is not something that can be be fixed in the short term.”

A spokesperson for Homeland Security couldn’t be reached for comment.

Community Safety Minister Marie-France Lalonde said the auditor’s findings are consistent with the results of its internal review and a number of key initiatives were announced last week, including recruitment of a dedicated chief of emergency management.

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